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By: Sandra Fisher
Pressing flowers is an inspiring and creative hobby that will add dimensions to your life! It will bring out your creativity, reduce your stress and allow you to earn money at the same time.
You’ll be surprised to discover how quickly you can learn to press flowers; and once you know how, you’ll be able to make all kinds of lovely articles.
Pressed flowers are used for decorating greeting cards, pictures, telephone directories and Photo albums. Even school bags, candles and lampshades can be decorated with sprays of pressed flowers. There is no end to the variety of ways in which you can use them.
The tools you will need
The tools you'll need are simple and easy to get hold of. You'll find that you have most of the equipment for flower pressing in your home already.
For example, you’ll need a few flat wooden boards, newspaper, bricks or some large heavy books, paper glue, a blunt knife with a rounded blade for removing the pressed flowers from the pressing papers and several other items that are easily obtainable.
What can you press?
You’ll soon find that flower pressing is not limited to flowers only. Many leaves, grasses, tendrils and ferns press very well. You will even be able to press stamens, fennel flowers and carrot tops!
The delicate seed heads of ordinary lawn grasses will give a touch of finesse. Even bits of bark and little patches of lichen can be added to your designs to give some originality to your cards and pictures.
There’s a wealth of suitable floral material right there in your own back yard. With a bit of practice you will soon discover what to press and what to avoid.
Don’t despise the various types of weeds either. You'll be surprised to see how effective they can be. Many weeds have dainty florets that are quite pretty. They even provide lovely seed heads that you can use in your designs so you just need a good eye and a bit of imagination.
Of course there's a lot of scope for experimenting too and that’s half the fun.
However, it’s important to bear in mind that flowers in a pressed flower collage need to look natural and appealing.
Creating the Design
Because pressed flowers are flat and two-dimensional you should aim for a flowing, graceful line. You can easily accomplish this if you work cleverly with the natural curves in the pressed foliage.
Elegantly curved tendrils and curled leaves in your flower designs give you the natural flowing look you need. You can even curve some of the straight stems by bending them gently. You can also run them gently between your thumb and the back end of a pair of scissors.
When picking leaves it’s important to take note of the individual stages of growth of the plants. Pale young green leaves and shoots behave very differently from mature ones.
The different seasons need to be taken into account too. Tender maple leaves picked in spring are quite different from the red and gold leaves harvested in autumn or fall.
Working with flowers and greenery can be very rewarding. Not only will you enjoy this creative hobby – you’ll even be able to turn it into a small home business.
Sandra Fisher began pressing flowers as a hobby but soon turned it into a successful “work from home” business. She shares her enthusiasm for pressing flowers at her colorful website http://www.flowerpressing.com where she gives some expert tips for preserving flowers. She has also written a book called “The Secrets of Flower Pressing.”
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